MetaMask Brings Ethereum to Your Browser

Imagine a world where a username is unnecessary, a password will suffice. Imagine a system where voting on the future state of the world can be done from the comfort of your home. Imagine a place where there are no illusions of what is going on, where the open community comes first.

MetaMask is your gateway into this world of decentralized applications , or DApps , on the Ethereum blockchain!

Why use MetaMask?

MetaMask is an easily accessible way to access the blockchain network through a user friendly interface. No more setting up your own node on your local machine to interact with the blockchain , a Chrome extension is all you need!

MetaMask also provides a wallet interface for users to view their LightWallet ether balances, as well as enable sending ether like a normal wallet client.

MetaMask is available from the Chrome Web Store. With a couple of clicks, you can get MetaMask up and running on your browser!

Getting started using MetaMask

MetaMask is a Google Chrome extension that is easily accessible from the Chrome Web Store.

Let’s Talk Permissions

Before we dive in, let’s address a few issues concerning the installation permissions. An extension that can “read and change all your data on the websites you visit” would make most reasonable people nervous! In order for MetaMask to enable DApps to access the blockchain, MetaMask injects a web3 Javascript object into each page. The extension is not changing the website, it is simply giving it access to the network in order to function properly.

Getting Started

Here, we’ll walk through a few of MetaMask’s key features, specifically regarding transactions and confirmation of transactions requested by DApps.

Setting Up Your Account

If you already have a LightWallet, you can restore your vault with the vault’s seed words. If not, have no fear, you can create a new vault to hold and generate your wallets easily!

When you first create a vault, you will be prompted to save a certain number of seed words. These words can be used by MetaMask to regenerate your vault if need be, as well as enabling the creation of new wallets within your vault.

Store these seed words somewhere safe! Although MetaMask gives you the option to see your seed words, we recommend storing your seed words physically in the event that the MetaMask software fails. MetaMask is still in its development stage, so we don’t recommend storing large amounts of ETH in your MetamMask wallets just yet.

The Interface

Moving forward, you should be taken to your first wallet, which looks something like this:

The arrows corresponds to the following:

• Pink: This is your editable wallet nickname. Underneath is a portion of the public key, or the hexadecimal address that uniquely identifies your wallet.
• Teal: These buttons copy your wallet address to the clipboard and allow you to export your private keys.
• Red: This indicates the current network. Clicking it will open a drop down menu to switch to the Main Ethereum Network, the Morden Test Network, or your own network of choice.
• Green: This button will take you to a page that will allow you to switch accounts.

Below the current wallet information is a list of outgoing transactions from the current wallet with relevant information. Clicking the transaction itself will link you to an etherscan page with more detailed information.

Sending ether to another address is simple. MetaMask will help guard you against sending to invalid addresses, as well as initiating transactions that send more ether than the current wallet contains. Before a transaction is actually executed, a notification pops up allowing you to confirm the transaction and examine relevant details.

Don’t worry if you close the notification , the extension popup will prompt you to approve or reject any pending transactions the next time it’s opened.

Here, the accounts page shows an overview of your current wallets, a convenient button to copy wallet addresses, as well as the option to generate more wallets as needed.

Final Notes

While we encourage users to test out and play around with our software, please keep in mind that MetaMask is still in active development. With that in mind, we encourage users to refrain from handling large amounts of ether on the main Ethereum network using MetaMask. We recommend executing all testing or experimentation on the Morden Test Network or a local network of your choosing to mitigate these risks.

Similarly, if you do find any bugs, have any feature requests, or would like to leave a comment, please contact us at help@metamask.io or leave an issue in our MetaMask GitHub repository.

We wish you the best in exploring the world of Ethereum and DApps using MetaMask. It’s an exciting new frontier out there; we’re happy to be the key that unlocks it for you!

Further info:

Download here: Chrome Web Store
Contact us: help@metamask.io or hello@metamask.io
Website: metamask.io
Github: https://github.com/MetaMask/hello